Saturday, May 2, 2009

Jeans re-cycled and or ideas on recycling before and after 1989

Sewing clothes from old clothes was something we did out of necessity before 1989. Back then, if you wanted something unique, you had to make it yourself and if you desperately needed e. g. a pair of pants you had to whip it up from your aunt's evening dress she used to wear in 1972 or something similar. Fabrics in stores, the ones that you would like to have, just weren't on stock. I know, it sounds like fun today but believe me, it was fun only a little, as for the creativity you had to face up, like it or not, but other than that you just didn't have a choice, you had to recycle.

My family was still lucky in that situation. Our relatives in western Germany would send us so called "winterhilfe" - used clothes, usually completely out of fashion, which for us, young teens meant that we will have lot of fun trying them on on the day they arrived. But then our handy mums were slowly turning them into wearable pieces that even caused some success later at school.All I want to say is that it would never occurred to me that I would re-sew the old cloths again when I can get it cheaper and nicer in a store. If it wasn't for this creative community on blogs that provoke me to go back to this kind of handy crafts. Strange, how the idea of recycling clothes still means for majority here not being able to afford something better, it means being poor and that feels humiliating here.So what is going on here? Originally two pants, jeans and something, sewed up together. The front part remained almost unchanged, it is basically the old jeans but smaller, cut on sides and on the inner side of legs. Other parts of the same old jeans were used in this way. Dominik didn't want to take them off after the photo shoot.

5 comments:

This is an extremely interesting topic: how world history and ordinary life intersect, and how something that used to be made out of necessity now has become an art. Reading your posts, I really feel we know so little about your part of Europe over here ...By the way, in my country, hand made stuff is considered cheap, whereas store bought things, althought now cheaper, are more highly esteemed.

This is very interesting. Just yesterday we went to what used to be east berlin and i was trying to describe what it was like to my 7 and 9 year old about what it was like when i was their age. They kept saying, 'You mean when Oma was little, right?" No, when I was little! The wall came down when I was 20. They seemed so confused. It's crazy how much things have changed so quickly.

My mom finally starting knitting again for her grandkids because we liked it- it shifted a lot of things for her to not have to knit out of necessity but out of a desire to create something beautiful.

these pants are great...you always inspire me with the way you re-use things. since reading your blog, i have become much more aware of how i use and re-use fabric and am trying to find ways to not waste anything. i'm not always succesful, but i like the fact that you have made me really think about it!

Thank you for nice comments!Francesca, so you see, it is probably everywhere like that, hand made stuff considered cheap and low, I though it was a post-communist reality here and it is a general human attitude.

The little travelers, so you know yourself, and the more, you know how difficult it gets to explain to others what it was like back then. Sometimes it is hard to even remember.

Jill, how nice, I am pleased by your words a lot. The inspiration works vice-versa.